Bad News Bears Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Disorganized. Disrespected. Dis summer.
The bases are Loaded... So is the coach.
Baseball has rules. Meet the exceptions.
Morris Buttermaker (Thornton), an alcoholic pest removal worker and former professional baseball player (for a very short time), is recruited to coach and train a failing baseball team of 12 year olds which is about to be thrown out of the league. Although the team does not win the first place in the next championship, it does achieve a great comeback.
| Billy Bob Thornton | Morris Buttermaker |
| Greg Kinnear | Roy Bullock |
| Marcia Gay Harden | Liz Whitewood |
| Sammi Kane Kraft | Amanda Whurlitzer |
| Ridge Canipe | Toby Whitewood |
| Brandon Craggs | Mike Engelberg |
| Jeffrey Davies | Kelly Leak |
| Timmy Deters | Tanner Boyle |
| Carlos Estrada | Miguel Agilar |
| Emmanuel Estrada | Jose Agilar |
| Troy Gentile | Matthew Hooper |
| Kenneth 'K.C.' Harris | Ahmad Abdul Rahim |
| Aman Johal | Prem Lahiri |
| Tyler Patrick Jones | Timmy Lupus |
| Jeffrey Tedmori | Garo Daragabrigadien |
| Richard Linklater |
5.90 out of 10 (5396 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Bad News Bears is Bad News
posted on 22 Aug 2009Bad News Bears, a film that can only be described as one thing. Horrible. I was surprised to see Billy Bon Thorton, an outstanding actor playing in such a horrible movie. Not only was the movie not funny, but who was the jokes towards; Children? Adults?Morris Buttermaker (Billy Bob Thorton) was a drunk couch who hangs around hookers. Two long scenes take place in the restaurant, Hooters. But, besides this, there's man who couches kids, and their team strives to win everything! Is this a kids movie, or adult movie? The scenes with the sexual jokes and scenes with hookers is anything but for little children, but where they play baseball and strive the win and be the best, that part would bore the adults to death, (it did for me.)I would rate this movie 4 out of 10, because most parts were boring, and it was a very stupid movie over-all.
Please - just see the original
posted on 04 Aug 2009I'm a fan of Billy Bob - but he ain't no Walter Matthau. Every character is just plain flat - with nothing to act off of. You don't really care about anyone in the movie. Linklater is a much better director and you are better off watching any other movie that either he or Billy Bob has made. A waste of money all around in my opinion. Just go and watch the original - you won't regret it. (They won't let me make my comment unless I have 10 lines of text - but I have nothing else to say. Guess I'll just have to keep typing until they let this go through. Opps not enough yet - how about this time. Still not enough - I think this will make it)
Bad News Actors
posted on 04 Aug 2009I have seen many movies with child actors and have been amazed at how incredibly strong are their performances. Unfortunately this is not true with this movie. All of the child actors were stiff as amateurs in their first performances. The real blame falls on Casting - they totally have no clue about what children can do as actors.However, I would be remiss to not mention the skill of the child actor who played "Joey." Although his part is small he is utterly convincing as the Yankees coaches' son.But the movie is not all bad. Billy Bob Thornton is genius in this remake of the original with Walter Mathau. Although it is a remake it is entirely new for this era. I have always disliked "modernized" old movies - the themes from the past do not lend themselves easily to modernization. However, this one is done very adeptly by both director and Billy Bob. (It's Billy Bob's performance which made me give this movie a high rating - 8 out of 10.)-ZafoidPS: I think this is a movie for fathers with kids in Little League than it is a kids movie.-Z
Bad News Bears - great!
posted on 15 Jul 2009I did not see the original movie, since I was born 3 years later, but I thought this movie was hilarious. I love Billy Bob's dry humor, which I agree, is the same as in Bad Santa. I don't think we should be comparing classics made 30 years ago with movies made today. They aren't comparable and doing so just sets you up for disappointment. By going to see this movie with a clean slate, you'll get more than enough laughs for your money and a great night out! I would strongly recommend this movie to anyone wanting a good laugh and who is tired of all those gory horror or predictable drama movies. However, this is definitely NOT a kid's movie, although it appears to be at first glance.
A total and complete waste of film
posted on 09 Jul 2009There is no "good news" about these "bad news Bears". How can anyone have respect for a film that shows no respect for anything. These losers don't seem to learn from their mistakes. Instead of a "feel good" movie, this is a "feel bad" movie. Very predictable. After watching this movie, I was totally depressed, and embarrassed that I wasted my time & money renting it. What a mess. I honestly can't recall ever seeing a worse movie than this. I need to apologize to my kids. It's truly sad to see kids using bad language, and its even worse when considering that they're the target audience for this film. There is no inspiration here.
kids with bad attitudes...
posted on 03 Jul 2009make for great baseball comedies. Well, sort of. This movie was funny, but not as good as the original. Coach Buttermaker kills rats by morning and coaches misfit baseballers by afternoon. He loves to swear and drink around the kids while half-a**ing it as their coach. Roy Bullock gets under his skin and decides he wants his team to be good to beat Bullock's team. He recruits his daughter he never sees to be the pitcher and gets the bad boy to join the team who is a good athlete.The Bears fortunes change and they start winning. The kids go from whining about losing to gloating and just being very unsportsmanlike. For some reason during the last game, Buttermaker decides winning isn't the most important thing but fun is and lets all the kids play, including the one in a wheel chair. I don't think that went along with his character.FINAL VERDICT: It's funny in a sick sort of way. If you like raunchy humor, you will like this.
I feel dirty
posted on 13 Jun 2009This movie had no reason to get made. I loved 'School Of Rock' and went to see it because Richard Linklater directed it, but it looks like it was shot in a day and the acting from the kids is horrible. Billy Bob Thornton looks half-comatose throughout the film. Some reviews say this movie is edgier than the original. That is in no way true. This one seems to want to have a heart to it, which ruins the film. Very disappointed throughout. I saw this at the dollar theater and felt like I should ask for my money back. The whole film has an improved feel to it, almost like there was no script whatsoever. There is hardly any music underscoring also, which makes the pacing of the film entirely too slow. Highly unrecommended.
Serviceable – yet play-by-play – remake of the '70s comedy classic.
posted on 09 Jun 2009BAD NEWS BEARS (2005) **1/2 Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear, Marcia Gay Harden.Serviceable – yet play-by-play – remake of the '70s comedy classic.Remakes are such a tricky creature in the cinematic world. Why bother remaking something that has an audience that loves the original in the first place is the $64,000 question most average filmgoers would be saying aloud and I'm hard-pressed to disagree? If it ain't broke, why fix it? But if you are going to do it, perhaps you should I dunno make it better?In the latest Hollywood misgivings about damn-to-hell-what-the-audience-wants-let's simply-recycle-a-hit-from-the-past-and-worry-about-the-conseque nces-later offering the result is a practically serviceable yet play-by-play 'safe' remaking of the comedy classic that starred the lovably gruff, messed-bed persona of the beleaguered Walter Matthau in all his schlumpy glory as the grizzled, beer-drinking never-was of a big-league ballplayer reduced to cleaning swimming pools in sunny Southern California musing about his one time only appearance in the majors while managing a ragtag little league ball team of misfits, losers and foul-language spewing tykes which unearthed a new sports themed subgenre: the pathetic team of misfits, losers and foul-language spewing tykes which have been seen in everything from THE MIGHTY DUCKS to the recent REBOUND with its pedestrian scripts and bathroom humor that has run stale since the original BEARS' first unworthy sequel!Well now indie cum Hollywood darling Richard Linklater (SCHOOL OF ROCK, DAZED AND CONFUSED) comes equipped with a faithful yet raunchy enough screenplay by BAD SANTA scribes Glenn Ficarra and John Requa who manage to update the Bill Lancaster script and Michael Ritchie's direction with enough pallid political incorrectness (except for one glaring omission in one of the lines spoken by the most foul player, Tanner Boyle (which I'm going to do likewise in fear of rebuttal; yeah, that's the times we live in folks, but dammit the line is funny and it's a JOKE!) and sexual humor to make the most hardened go-figure curmudgeon chuckle.Thornton fills Matthau's shoes as Morris Buttermaker, a drunken ex-ball player who is now an exterminator here but still a souse with a lousy demeanor, who is coerced by an attorney child-rights activist named Liz Whitehood (the sexy Harden) and an undisclosed check to coach the Bears, the worst team ever assembled (thanks to the political correctness we know have an Indian nerd and a chubby kid in a wheelchair rounding out the token black kid, two Mexican brothers and the fat kid whose on Atkins and not a junk food junkie).Buttermaker enlists the aid of Amanda Whurlitzer (Sammi Kraft), a tweener pitching sensation he knew from his ill-fated relationship with her mom, when he realizes the kids really deserve more than the shellacking they received in their debut to the much-hated rivals, the Yankees led by Roy Bullock (Kinnear substituting yuppie weaseldom from Vic Morrow's gruff general bullying) who wants Buttermaker to take a hike.Also tacked on is grungy trouble making Kelly Leak (Jeff Davies) who Bullock can't stomach but proves to be a true athlete in power-hitting and displaying a keen touch for the outfield to boot as Buttermaker suddenly realizes the Bears may actually have a shot at the championship title.The film pretty much stays fast and loose but connect-the-dots similar to its original (even in an uncanny shot-by-shot of Leak's batting practice homer gliding into an actual game!) Not necessarily a bad thing but even though the screenwriters give Buttermaker a more active sexual life (sporting a bodacious babe here and there and even taking the kids to Hooters for a post-game celebration is inspired) it makes one wonder where it could've gone had they gone the R-rated route (which frankly the original came close to skirting as well). Thornton's sardonic Southern fried delivery is priceless – he's more chicken-fried steak than Matthau's salisbury and elicits enough contempt to distill the easily found treacle bubbling below (making the kids into winners) and Linklater, a personal fave of mine, seems to have found a unique niche: making kid films adult friendly.While it isn't an instant classic like the first flick – I blame that for the frankly carbon copies of the kids shown here – to wit, Tatum O'Neal actually emoted as Amanda in the '76 version! - (hell the Tanner kid looks and sounds just like the first one's! it's scary!) but they seem to be having a ball. Not a homer but more like a ground rule double that had triple written all over it.
I liked the original better
posted on 24 May 2009Since I finally remembered to rent The Bad News Bears at Hollywood Video, I decided to rent the remake instead of the sequels first, to see what the remake was all about and I thought that actually Billy Bob Thorton was a great choice for Buttermaker, so I was kinda looking forward to it. Of course, I watched the original first, so after almost dying of laughter from The Bad News Bears, this film had a lot to live up too. Unforutnatley, I don't think this film worked as well because of the dates, the 70's, films still seemed like they could push it to the edge, while into today's world, we have to be more PC. Not to mention the kids were more annoying and punky than the lovable punky kids in the original.Buttermaker is a has been baseball player and now an alcoholic, he is given the job of a little league coach for the Bears since no other fathers are taking the job. But he's definitely taken back when he finds out that the team he is coaching are kids who are, well, I guess you could say "lacking" in the department of knowing how to play baseball. But he just wants to get paid and get the job over with, but when their first game comes along, the kids get creamed 26-0, Buttermaker is pressured to drop the team out of the league, but instead teaches the kids how to play and recruits a couple of new kids, a girl who's mother he used to date, and a rebel without a cause. The kids get better in each game, but it's a matter of Buttermaker getting his priorities straight when he lets the game get the worst of him... and he's an alcoholic! Billy Bob did do a good job as the new Buttermaker, but he seemed to be the softer version than Walter, so I'd have to vote for Walter if I want the real Buttermaker. Tanner, I was incredibly disappointed with, because he just turned into an annoying brat than a fun little punk, not to mention I was ticked off that they changed the line "shove the trophies up your..." to the other kid, that was Tanner's line and rightfully so! While Bad News Bears had a couple laughs, it just wasn't needed, stick with the original.6/10
Nothing new, save your money
posted on 12 Apr 2009I gave the remake a 6. I consider the original a 9 or 10. As a kid the original BNB was as close to the actual Little League experience one could get. Growing up in the 70's and seeing the original as a kid has over the years, made me appreciate the original BNB more and more over the years. Tanner is one of my favorite characters in moviedom.The new version while staying very close to the original, has none of the spirit of the old classic. All of the actors fail to live up to any of the original's grit and toughness. The new Tanner is a joke. He looks like Tanner, speaks like Tanner, acts like Tanner, but he is not Tanner. Same goes for everyone except for maybe the Timmy Lupis character. He was passable. Billy Bob was and still is the only choice to play Buttermaker, but even he can't pull this one off. There is just no reason for remaking this classic.The kid in the wheel chair was just ridiculous.Why?
Not good enough
posted on 27 Mar 2009This idea should have been rethought almost immediately, just look at Bad News Bears Breaking Training and Bad News Bears go to Japan. The concept of foul mouthed politically incorrect kids and the drunk but lovable coach is definitely a winner but everything after the original has missed the mark. I must preface by saying that I was about the same age as the kids in the original so that may bias some of the review. That being said, I felt that this new crop of child actors was not quite up to the challenge of taking these great colorful characters and making them shocking but lovable. The Amanda - Buttermaker relationship I felt was the main culprit of this, just not enough there to make me buy it. If you or your kid play baseball this is a maybe.
A remake that is inferior to the 1976 version in most respects.
posted on 15 Mar 2009I like Billy Bob Thornton as an actor in most his movies. I did not like his role in "Bad Santa" and I do not like his role here as former major league pitcher (2/3 of an inning with a 36 ERA) Morris Buttermaker, who is hired to manage a down and out incompetent team the (bad news) Bears. This, in addition to his regular job as an exterminator of various pests. (One scene he is shown dumping dead rats into a dumpster near the ball field.) Greg Kinnear is good as Roy Bullock, the manager of the Yankees, the winners of the league championship the prior year, and clear favorites to repeat. One bright spot in the movie is former unknown Sammi Kane Kraft, who got the part of Amanda Whurlitzer via an open audition of real baseball girls. She is a pitcher, and a good one at that, which makes her role very believable. She also did a very credible acting job, as the daughter of a woman Buttermaker used to be married to.As an aside, young actor Ridge Canipe played Toby Whitewood. Canipe was in another 2005 movie, "Walk the Line", as the very young Johnny Cash who was fishing when his brother was injured by the wood cutting machine.I didn't like this remake because it was too full of fussing and bad language, both by the kids and by Buttermaker, to the point where it became tiresome. Maybe kids behave like that nowadays but I don't like it, and I don't enjoy watching a movie that depicts such bad behavior. I would not recommend it to any of my friends, but maybe to a few enemies!SPOILER -- Buttermaker gets Amanda to pitch, and finds another kid who can field and hit very well. Plus he coaches the other kids into better players. In the climax of the big game against the Yankees, it looks like the Bears will win, until Buttermaker takes out some of the stars to let all the kids play, even the one in a wheelchair. It still looks like they might win in the bottom of the 6th, but what looks like a home run is caught, and they lose 8 to 7.
Worth a watch, but overall not a worthy remake
posted on 01 Mar 2009I'll be undoubtedly buying it when it comes out on DVD because I'm an avid collector and also a fan of Billy Bob and I do find it fairly entertaining. It is even probable that this movie will grow on me, but nonetheless I found it very unimpressive the other day when I walked into the theater expecting another Bad Santa.First off, I found the child acting quite embarrassing to watch at times. Some of it was decent, but for the most part it seemed they had a lot of trouble delivering their lines. The kid who played the little blond potty mouth was terrible. He sounded so phony every time he swore. If they were better they might have been able to hide some laziness evident in the script, but instead only accentuated the lack of substantial comedy. I mean, honestly, the best thing they had was the cripple in the wheelchair and after awhile even he got old. Also, a lot of the dialogue seemed unnatural and just kinda forced.At only eight or nine minutes short of 2 hours, it was obviously too long and the big game at the end was horribly paced. It seemed like it went on and on and on and on for like forty minutes (I know that's an exaggeration, but not much of one.) I also know it stays true to the original and that it's somewhat of a sports movie, but half of the movie is just kids hitting baseballs, which, at an hour and fifty one minutes, makes for a lot of bore.This updated version of The Bad News Bears comes out phony and with everything not as good as it was in 1976. Matthau beats Thornton (for a reason I cannot quite lay my finger on) and it just shouldn't have been made, since they improved on absolutely nothing.
Cheap Fun
posted on 27 Feb 2009Bad News Bears (2005) *** (out of 4) Workable remake of the 70's classic has Billy Bob Thornton taking over the role originally played by Walter Matthau. This isn't a great film and it's certainly miles behind the original but it still works pretty well on its own. Ol' Billy Bob manages plenty of laughs and I'm glad they kept in (most) the politically incorrect humor. Making one of the kids wheelchair bound was pretty brave in this day and age but it gets some nice laughs. The biggest problem is that the film runs nearly two hours long and the final game itself goes on for nearly thirty minutes, which is just way too long.
I'm scared for our future
posted on 16 Jan 2009I'm absolutely flabbergasted that several individuals raved about this morbid disaster. No charm, too vulgar and crude, and without any redeeming social values - that sums up this ill-advised remake.I sat with my fiancée and two 10-year-old boys and chuckled TWICE. Most of the time I was in pain at the LACK of humor and OVERLOAD of crudeness and wretchedness. Here's an indication of how lame this was... the guy behind me fell asleep and was snoring loudly through the whole thing. And this was at 3 in the afternoon! I must admit, I became jealous that I couldn't sleep through it too.For those who think I'm a prude for decrying the vulgarity, I LOVED the "South Park" movie. But since this was targeted for a young audience, the team behind this disaster should be arrested for corrupting minors.This is two hours of my life that I'll never get back... and I hate it.
Horrible...see the original if you want a good movie
posted on 14 Jan 2009The original is sooooooooo much better! The jokes were better, the kids were better actors, Walter Mauthau is a much better Buttermaker...Billy Bob just made the role sleazy and unsympathetic. It was much more shocking back in the 70's also...now the humor just seems crass and sleazy. All the magic from the first one was absent in this one. It seems like they were trying way too hard to copy the original and somehow got lost, ending up with a dud of a movie. Why mess with a good movie anyway? It's like trying to remake Grease...you just can't do it. Just an overall BAD remake. 1/10.Skip this one; see the original instead.
Is sportsmanship that important anymore?
posted on 02 Jan 2009If you think that bad taste is funny...be ready to laugh your butt off. This is not to be confused with the Walter Matthau Bad News Bears of 1976. Watching this team of misfits is somehow refreshing. Morris Buttermaker(Billy Bob Thornton), a former major league pitcher who saw 2/3 of an inning in the big leagues, is hired by Liz Whitewood(Marsha Gay Harden)to coach her son and a group of little league rejects. Butterworth, currently working as an exterminator; drinks beer constantly, chain smokes cigars and doesn't particularly like children; but reluctantly takes on the job of coaching these talent-challenged kids. A thorn in Buttermaker's side is the coach(Greg Kinnear) of the returning champions. To the rescue comes his estranged daughter(Sammi Kraft)and a neighborhood tough guy(Jeff Davies). Thornton is hilarious as the grousing coach. Nobody could play this role any better. And impressive is Kraft, who was discovered in a public park and reportedly can throw a 72 mph fastball. Crude, rude and a whole lot of fun to watch.
"Bears" is a laugh-a-minute riot!!!
posted on 25 Nov 2008This "Bad News Bears" is a remake of the 1976 classic of a bunch a juvenile kids that lack basic motor skills that have a once pro-ball player turned loser drunk as a coach named Morris Buttermaker. The kids are stubborn and don't listen to Buttermaker and threaten to disband the team until Buttermaker acquires the help of his fast-ball throwing daughter Amanda Whurlitzer, and biker bad-boy Kelly Leak. Then the team bands together to reach championship caliber.Billy-Bob Thorton plays Buttermaker from the original movie who was played by Walter Mathau. He plays the role perfectly and provides almost all of the laughs in the movie. The other laughs are provided by Mike Engelberg and Tanner Boyle. All these two do is bicker and call each other vulgar names. Engelberg is always jumping on people for calling him fat. Boyle will never miss an opportunity to throw his glove at someone, or start a fight with a fellow teammate.Bad News Bears is one of the few remakes in Hollywood that manages to live up to the original. Sure it might not have the magic the 1976 one did but it is really close. Also, some of the jokes are re-used in the 2005 version but it's nice seeing it delivered by a new actor or actress. Also, the new jokes more than make up for the twice used jokes. In the end, if you were a fan of the original, or are a newcomer than have no fears this new updated version will have you laughing all the way out of the theater to your car and on the way home.
Very bad in taste
posted on 07 Nov 2008This movie has too much swearing and is very immature. Not recommended for kids to watch. They have young kids swearing in the movie, which is just wrong. Billy Bob Thornton needs acting lessons and so does the rest of the cast. The movie was so boring that I fell asleep. The original version is much better. Do not waste your money or rental on this movie. I was kind of surprised that the movie was available for rent after only being out a few days, now I know why. So if you want a movie that will put you to sleep and upset your stomach, then watch it. But if you can avoid it, please do. I sure hope they do not make a part 2.
Bad News...Bad News Bears was not any good
posted on 24 Aug 2009The story is about a has been, drunk named Morris Buttermaker(Billy Bob Thorton) who takes a bunch of losers put together on a team due to a law suit.The movie is realitively funny at a few parts(mainly due to Billy Bob Thorton, who basically plays the same character as in Bad Santa). The extreme losers, and that was quite funny also. But the movie itself, was bad. The plot, acting, editing, and writing were all below average. Honestly, if you want to see a bunch of kids act up whille playing baseball, see Sandlot or if you want to see Billy Bob Thorton being outrageous, see Bad Santa. Just don't see this movie. Overall, even though the movie is pretty funny, the movie still is very below average.I do not recommend this movie.